The blog contains articles by the author which appear in various newspapers in Kashmir and are also available on the website: www.kashmirfirst.com

Sunday, March 27, 2016

BJP fuelling Kashmir militancy

The recent actions of BJP Government have driven Kashmiri youth to a corner which is fuelling the new wave of militancy.

In these columns it had been pointed out that a new wave of militancy
has been rising in Kashmir for past some time. This wave was of young
committed and highly educated youth without any external support or
motivation. The main reason has been total clamp down on free expression
and extreme alienation due to excessive suppression by the security
agencies. The spur in this wave was caused by the joining of a Kashmir
centric mainstream party having the motto of the “healing touch”, with
the extremist Hindutva groups to form a government in the state. This
was in spite of the fact that the said party explicitly opposed the
entry of Hindutva elements into Kashmir during their election campaign.
The youth that had supported and helped the party during election
campaign felt betrayed and stabbed in the back. Even the leader of the
party Mufti Sahib was reluctant to join and dithered for a month or so.
In fact, apparently, he was persuaded by some other members on the plea
that it was essential to align with the Government in Delhi to get the
massive funds needed for rehabilitation and development. Unfortunately,
in spite of a total surrender to the Hindutva party, the promised funds
never came and Mufti Sahib virtually died of that shock!
RSS and BJP have always been anti-Muslim. In fact,
before the independence of the country, they even opposed the freedom
movement and sided with the British. According to Rajeshwar Dayal, the
Chief Secretary of the United Provinces in 1947-48, Golwalkar had
planned to carry out a Pogrom of Muslims. In his book, “Bunch of
Thoughts”,he writes about non-Hindus: “The non-Hindu people of Hindustan
must either adopt Hindu culture and language, must learn and respect
and hold in reverence the Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but of
those of glorification of the Hindu race and culture ... In a word they
must cease to be foreigners, or may stay in the country, wholly
subordinated to the Hindu nation, claiming nothing, deserving no
privileges, far less any preferential treatment—not even citizens'
rights.” RSS is now giving practical shape to these ideas of Golwalkar
through their nominee, Narendra Modi. In this game plan Kashmir and
especially, the Kashmiri Muslims have been their favourite targets.
Their first onslaught was in fifties through the
Parija Parishad agitation in Jammu for complete merger of J & K
state into the Indian Union. This resulted in the dethroning and arrest
of the then tallest leader of Kashmir, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah who had
been duped into accepting India as a progressive and a secular country
by Nehru and others. However, these so called progressive leaders of the
freedom movement led by Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru were able to contain
these extremist Hindus only partially. They did not fully succeed in
eliminating these extremist Hindutva elements as they had themselves
accepted the partition of the country on the basis of religion. These
elements continued their movement covertly and came into the open off
and on. Now, they are in the open with full onslaught on Muslims
especially those from Kashmir who have always been portrayed as
“Pakistani Agents”. These days it is a fashion to be anti-Muslim and
specifically anti-Kashmiri Muslim as that behaviour is construed to be
true “nationalism”! The onslaught is so strong that even the most
progressive and secular elements of the recent JNU agitation had to back
out from their pro-Kashmiri stand! From “Azadi” for Kashmir they came
to the oft repeated slogan of the “Integral Part”!The Hindutva wave has
covertly seeped into every institution including Army, Administration
and even the Judiciary.
Within Kashmir, the witch hunt and suppression of
youth had reached a peak which has now resulted in more and more youth
joining militancy. In fact, the DG, CRPF has also said that the youth
joining militancy is a cause for concern. Now, the whole thing has been
topped up by missive from the Ministry of Home Affairs to various
agencies and states to check all Kashmiris in every part of India.
Already in Goa, Kolkata, Delhi, and some other places checking of all
Kashmiri students, employees or businessmen has started. Because of
disturbed conditions in Kashmir, many parents had sent their children to
various peaceful institutions in India for studies. Similarly, many
Kashmiris right from nineties had set up businesses in different parts
of India. However, it seems now, thanks to BJP, no place in India is
safe for Kashmiris. Probably, they are being given the final “healing
touch”!
The most surprising are the contradictions at the
highest political level. The top political leadership in the two
neighbouring countries is exhibiting bonhomie by embracing and hugging
each other while as at the ground level the Kashmiris supposed to
represent the “core” problem are being witch hunted and driven to a
wall. The “new nationalists” in India have made it abundantly clear that
they want the land of Kashmir and are not interested in the fate of
Kashmiris. A columnist friend has called for a debate on the issue.
Well, debates do not solve problems. It needs an unconditional stand by
all concerned within Kashmir regardless of their ideology or their
political streams. In fact, all progressive, secular and truly
nationalist persons in India should come out openly to defend Kashmiris
all over India. Now that Mehbooba Ji is satisfied with her meeting with
the Prime Minister regarding implementation of the Confidence Building
Measures, the first CBM to be implemented on the ground should be to
ensure safety of Kashmiris within Kashmir and in every part of India.
Rehabilitation and development can wait but not the right to life! The
alternative, as already pointed out, would be a spur in the new wave of
militancy which would be a colossal disaster for the entire
sub-continent and ultimately for the entire South Asia if the two sides
lose their cool!